The Reason Art Teachers Chose Their Profession

Teacher or professors teach, they instruct and educate their students in school. But do you think that there are some who teach art because they can’t do it themselves? We at PortPrep disagree.

Karen Kesteloot said, “How else can anyone impart anything of value if they themselves can’t do it?” There are professors who want to teach because they consider it as their calling, but it doesn’t mean that they aren’t good with it and stopped creating art for that matter. In fact, there are also teachers who are good in both teaching and creating art and choose to do both.

Any teacher should be equipped with the right knowledge and technical skills because it’s important to be responsive to your students’ questions and concerns. If a teacher doesn’t have any experiences in arts, it will be difficult for them to teach their students. And it will be difficult for the students to learn and acquire the right knowledge that they will need.

Trust in your mentors’ capability and skills

“In my studies I found the quality of my education rested on the credentials and abilities of my professors. It was of the utmost importance that instructors had a high degree of skill in their fields of expertise.” According to Karen, which shows how important the influence of a good art teacher is to their students.

Great Teachers are also Great Artists

According to Karen, the professors she learned most from were truly adept artists themselves. One of the teachers she’s looking up to is Gene Chu who was a career artist but also continued to work as a serious and recognized printmaking artist throughout his teaching career. Karen learned technical details of print making, and as a teacher, Gene Chu made sure that his students understood why black, white and grey balance are important to have a good print.

A mark of a great teacher according to Karen, is the ability to inspire you to bridge the gap between arts and media and always leaves you wanting more.

Stu Oxley who was also working in the same print department at the University of Guelph as Chu, is also a highly recognized teacher and sought after print artist for his skills in balancing colors.

The type of velvety black he creates is rich making you feel like you could fall into their black depths and never come back out, according to Karen. She said that there was this feeling of as if you’re in a blissful dream of comfort and primordial oneness.

Both Chu and Oxley are highly recognized not only because their talented artists but also because of their ability to share their knowledge and experiences with others and help them better at what they do.